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406 - Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine, beginning an invasion of Gallia.

535 - Byzantine General Belisarius completes the conquest of Sicily, defeating the Ostrogothic garrison of Syracuse, and ending his consulship for the year.

1229 - James I of Aragon the Conqueror enters Medina Mayurqa (nowadays Palma de Mallorca, Spain) thus consuming the Christian conquest of the island of Mallorca.

1600 - British East India Company is chartered.

1660 - James II of England is created Duke of Normandy by King Louis XIV.

1687 - The first Huguenots set sail from France to the Cape of Good Hope.

1695 - A window tax is imposed in England, causing many shopkeepers to brick up their windows to avoid the tax.

1775 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of Quebec British forces repulse an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold.

1831 - Gramercy Park is deeded to New York City.

1857 - Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa, Ontario, as the capital of Canada.

1862 - American Civil War: Abraham Lincoln signs an act that admits West Virginia to the Union (thus dividing Virginia in two).

1862 - American Civil War: The Battle of Stones River is fought near Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

1879 - Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time.

1891 - A new immigration depot is opened on Ellis Island, New York.

1904 - The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square, then known as Longacre Square, in New York, New York.

1909 - Manhattan Bridge opens.

1916 - The Hampton Terrace Hotel in North Augusta, South Carolina, one of the largest and most luxurious hotels in the United States at the time, burns to the ground.

1923 - The chimes of Big Ben are broadcast on radio for the first time by the BBC.

1929 - Guy Lombardo performs Auld Lang Syne at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City for the first time.

1944 - World War II: Hungary declares war on Germany.

1946 - President Harry Truman officially proclaims the end of hostilities in World War II.

1955 - General Motors becomes the first U.S. corporation to make over USD $1 billion in a year.

1960 - The farthing coin ceases to be legal tender in the United Kingdom.

1961 - The Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than USD $12 billion in foreign aid to rebuild Europe.

1963 - The Central African Federation officially collapses and splits into Zambia, Malawi and Rhodesia.

1968 - Marien Ngouabi assumed the presidency of the Republic of the Congo.

1983 - The AT&T Bell System is broken up by the United States Government.

1986 - A fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, kills 97 and injures 140.

1988 - Mario Lemieux became the first player in National Hockey League history to score one each of the five types of goals in a single game: an even-strength goal, a power-play goal, a short-handed goal, a penalty shot and an empty-net goal.

1990 - Garry Kasparov holds his title by winning the World Chess Championship match against his countryman Anatoly Karpov.

1991 - The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is officially dissolved.

1991 - The civil war in El Salvador ends.

1992 - In the last of the great ITV franchise renewals, Thames Television, Television South West and Television South cease broadcasting, replaced by Carlton Television, Westcountry Television and Meridian Television respectively.

1994 - This date is skipped altogether in Kiribati as the Phoenix Islands and Line Islands change time zones from UTC-11 to UTC+13 and UTC-10 to UTC+14, respectively.

1995 - The last strip of the popular comic Calvin and Hobbes is published.

1997 - Quaker Oats settles a lawsuit involving the immoral use of child subjects in radioactivity experiments circa 1945-56.

1997 - X Japan performs their last live concert the "Last Live" at the Tokyo Dome.

1999 - Boris Yeltsin resigns as President of Russia, leaving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the acting President.

1999 - Five hijackers, who had been holding 155 hostages on an Indian Airlines plane, leave the plane with two Islamic clerics that they had demanded be freed.

1999 - At noon, according to the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, the United States Government handed Panama Canal control over to Panama. The Panama Canal Authority, the Panamanian Government Agency created to run the Canal, takes over.

2004 - The official opening of Taipei 101, the current tallest skyscraper in the world, standing at a height of 509 metres (1,670 feet).

2005 - AT&T and SBC Communications merge, SBC name is dropped. A new AT&T is formed.

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1378 - Pope Callixtus III (d. 1458)

1491 - Jacques Cartier, French explorer (d. 1557)

1514 - Vesalius, Flemish anatomist (d. 1564)

1572 - Emperor Go-Yozei of Japan, (d. 1617)

1668 - Herman Boerhaave, Dutch humanist and physician (d. 1738)

1720 - Charles Edward Stuart, pretender to the British throne (d. 1788)

1738 - Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, British general (d. 1805)

1763 - Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, French admiral (d. 1806)

1830 - Isma'il Pasha, Governor of Egypt (d. 1895)

1869 - Henri Matisse, French painter (d. 1954)

1880 - George C. Marshall, United States Secretary of State, Nobel Laureate (d. 1959)

1880 - Fred Beebe, baseball player (d. 1957)

1881 - Max Pechstein, German painter (d. 1955)

1882 - Martin O'Meara, Australian soldier (d. 1935)

1884 - Bobby Byrne, American baseball player (d. 1964)

1894 - Pola Negri, Polish actress (d. 1987)

1903 - Nathan Milstein, Ukrainian violinist (d. 1992)

1905 - Jule Styne, English-born composer (d. 1994)

1908 - Simon Wiesenthal, Austrian Holocaust survivor (d. 2005)

1910 - Carl Dudley, American film director (d. 1973)

1919 - Tommy Byrne, baseball player

1920 - Rex Allen, American actor and singer (d. 1999)

1928 - Siné, French cartoonist

1930 - Odetta, American singer

1931 - Bob Shaw, Irish writer (d. 1996)

1934 - Akram Awan, Islamic scholar

1937 - Avram Hershko, Israeli biologist, Nobel laureate

1937 - Anthony Hopkins, Welsh actor

1938 - Rosalind Cash, American actress (d. 1995)

1941 - Alex Ferguson, Scottish footballer

1942 - Andy Summers, British musician (The Police)

1943 - John Denver, American musician (d. 1997)

1943 - Ben Kingsley, English actor

1945 - Taylor Hackford, American film producer and director

1945 - Diane von Fürstenberg, Belgian-born fashion designer

1945 - Connie Willis, American writer

1947 - Burton Cummings, Canadian musician (The Guess Who)

1947 - Tim Matheson, American actor

1948 - Donna Summer, American singer

1949 - Ellen Datlow, American editor

1949 - Susan Shwartz, American writer

1951 - George Thorogood, American musician

1951 - Tom Hamilton, American musician (Aerosmith)

1953 - James Remar, American actor

1953 - Jane Badler, American actress

1958 - Bebe Neuwirth, American actress

1959 - Phill Kline, American politician

1959 - Val Kilmer, American actor

1959 - Paul Westerberg, American musician (The Replacements)

1960 - John Allen Muhammad, American serial killer

1961 - Rick Aguilera, baseball player

1962 - Heather McCartney, British activist

1963 - Scott Ian, American musician (Anthrax)

1964 - Allen D'Nulderf, American stuntman

1971 - Brent Barry, American basketball player

1971 - Esteban Loaiza, Mexican Major League Baseball player

1977 - Wardy Alfaro, Costa Rican footballer

1978 - Papoose (rapper), African American Rapper

1980 - Richie McCaw, New Zealand rugby player

1980 - Bob Bryar, American drummer (My Chemical Romance)

1980 - Matt Cross, American professional wrestler

1981 - Jason Campbell, American football player

1981 - Matthew Pavlich, Australian American football player

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192 - Commodus, Roman Emperor (b. 161)

1164 - Margrave Ottokar III of Styria (b. 1124)

1194 - Duke Leopold V of Austria (killed at a tournament) (b. 1157)

1297 - Humphrey de Bohun, 3rd Earl of Hereford, English soldier (b. 1249)

1302 - Frederick III, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1238)

1384 - John Wycliffe, English theologian and Bible translator

1424 - Thomas Beaufort, 1st Duke of Exeter, English military leader

1460 - Edmund, Earl of Rutland, brother of Kings Edward IV of England and Richard III of England (executed) (b. 1443)

1460 - Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, English politician (b. 1400)

1510 - Bianca Maria Sforza, wife of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1472)

1535 - William Skeffington, Lord Deputy of Ireland (b. 1465)

1568 - Shimazu Tadayoshi, Japanese warlord (b. 1493)

1575 - Pierino Belli, Italian soldier and jurist (b. 1502)

1583 - Thomas Erastus, Swiss theologian (b. 1524)

1610 - Ludolph van Ceulen, German mathematician (b. 1540)

1650 - Dorgon, Chinese emperor (b. 1612)

1673 - Oliver St John, English statesman and judge

1679 - Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, Italian physiologist and physicist (b. 1608)

1691 - Dudley North, English economist (b. 1641)

1719 - John Flamsteed, English astronomer (b. 1646)

1742 - Karl III Philip, Elector Palatine (b. 1661)

1799 - Jean-François Marmontel, French historian and writer (b. 1723)

1872 - Aleksis Kivi, Finnish author (b. 1834)

1877 - Gustave Courbet, French painter (b. 1819)

1888 - Samson Raphael Hirsch, German rabbi (b. 1808)

1889 - Ion Creangă, Romanian writer (b. 1837 or 1839)

1894 - Thomas Joannes Stieltjes, Dutch mathematician (b. 1856)

1905 - Alexander Popov, Russian physicist (b. 1859)

1921 - Boies Penrose, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania (b. 1860)

1936 - Miguel de Unamuno, Spanish writer and philosopher (b. 1864)

1948 - Malcolm Campbell, English race car driver (b. 1885)

1953 - Albert Plesman, Dutch aviation pioneer (b. 1889)

1964 - Ólafur Thors, Prime Minister of Iceland (b. 1892)

1964 - Bobby Byrne, baseball player (b. 1884)

1969 - George Lewis, American clarinetist (b. 1900)

1971 - Pete Duel American actor (b. 1940)

1971 - Marin Sais, American actress (b. 1890)

1971 - Vikram Sarabhai, Indian physicist (b. 1919)

1972 - Roberto Clemente, Puerto Rican baseball player (b. 1934)

1977 - Sabah III Al-Salim Al-Sabah, ruler of Kuwait (b. 1924)

1980 - Marshall McLuhan, Canadian writer (b. 1911)

1980 - Raoul Walsh, American film director (b. 1887)

1985 - Rick Nelson, American singer (b. 1940)

1986 - Lloyd Haynes, American actor (b. 1934)

1990 - Vasili Lazarev, Soviet cosmonaut (b. 1928)

1993 - Zviad Gamsakhurdia, first President of Georgia (b. 1939)

1997 - Floyd Cramer, American musician (b. 1933)

1997 - Michael Kennedy, American politician (b. 1958)

1999 - Elliot Richardson, American politician (b. 1920)

2000 - Alan Cranston, American politician (b. 1914)

2003 - Arthur R. von Hippel German-born physicist (b. 1898)

2004 - Gerard Debreu, French-born economist, Bank of Sweden Prize laureate (b. 1921)

2005 - Phillip Whitehead, British politician (b. 1937)

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New Year's Eve on the Gregorian Calendar.